Image of God
by Farla
Summary: A boy who reported his pokemon stolen. Two girls from two middle of nowheres setting out to be champions. The people who meet them along the way. And the story that has everyone buzzing - a trainer who captured a real live latios for his team.
1. Chapter 1

The boy walked up to the counter wearing a backward hoodie with a bulbasaur glowering out from inside the hood. He handed over a piece of paper.

𝓜𝔂 𝓫𝓾𝓵𝓫𝓪𝓼𝓪𝓾𝓻 𝓗𝔂𝓪𝓬𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓱 𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓷𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽. 𝓒𝓪𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓬𝓴 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓪𝓽? 𝓘 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴 𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓪 𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓭. 𝓗𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓷𝓸 𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓻𝓰𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓘 𝓴𝓷𝓸w 𝓸𝓯.

"Well, sure," Emily said. "It's probably damage from a chest hit, though. You should be careful when battling with small pokemon like these."

The boy shook his head and showed her his notepad. 𝓗𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓼𝓷'𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓲𝓷 𝓪𝓷𝔂 𝓫𝓪𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓼 𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓵𝔂.

"Sure," Emily said again, because "Do you seriously expect me to believe you?" was considered poor customer service. "And your other pokemon?"

𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓷𝓮

"Even if your other pokemon aren't injured - " she started, because the assumption was another one of those polite fictions in front-desk work.

𝓘^ 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 ^𝓱𝓪v𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓷𝓮, the boy amended.

"What, really?"

The boy nodded.

Emily actually looked at him for the first time in the conversation. The boy was slouched down, like he was apologizing for taking up space, something she'd only ever seen from much younger trainers. Could he have just started...? As the still glowering bulbasaur blinked, she realized its eyes had a teary shimmer to them. "Hm... Bulbasaur, could you open your mouth for me quick?"

The bulbasaur made a sort of whining growl with its mouth shut. The boy tapped it on the bulb, and after a moment of delay, it opened its mouth. She peered in. "Oh, that does look a bit red." It closed its mouth again with a snap. "Cheer up, you'll feel better soon!"

The boy worked its claws out of the hood and placed it on the counter along with a pokeball, a coloring book and a box of crayons with 𝓗𝔂𝓪𝓬𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓱 𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓼 𝓫𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓵𝔂 written on it. "And your license?"

He pulled out a card with a piece of paper taped to the back. Christopher Greenfield. 𝓘 𝓰𝓸 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓲𝓽.

"Okay then, Kit, this shouldn't take too long."

The boy nodded. He took his license back and headed to one of the couches, which he sagged into as if suddenly exhausted. Maybe he wasn't used to carrying the bulbasaur around like that.

She headed through the doors. Behind her, someone coughed loudly.

#

The zubat sent itself flying into his ponyta's face with more force than he'd have thought possible, knocking the weakened pokemon off-balance. The ponyta stumbled back a half step, her rear leg hitting a stone. She struggled for a moment to remain balanced, then collapsed onto the jutting rocks.

John whistled. He really hadn't been expecting this when he'd seen the girl standing around in front of the signpost like a lost kindergartner. He watched the zubat land clumsily, one wing evidently sprained or broken by its attack. "You're good - you're __amazing__ ," he said. "I've never seen anyone so in-sync with their pokemon. It's like something out of a TV show. How long have you been doing this?"

The girl smiled. It was dazzling. ~Thank you,~ he heard in his head. ~I hope to be a great trainer. First, though...I still need to figure out the map.~

"Oh, right."

He took it from her and spread the paper out on the ground. "Right, so...okay, we're here." He pointed. "Which is kind of the middle of nowhere, but it's surrounded by a lot of somewheres. Hearthome City is down and up this way, along with the pass between the mountains, and Pastoria is to the east. And if you're some sort of champion hiker, you could just head up and cross the mountains yourself. I wouldn't recommend it normally, since it's hard going and there's tough pokemon on top of that, but you seem more than able to handle yourself!"

~Thank you! And thank you for the help. I have trouble reading.~

"Oh? My cousin's got problems with the letters moving around too. He wears special sunglasses, says that really helps, filters out extra light or something." He pointed on the map then tracked backward. "Nearest pokecenter is here by this road, you should stop off and ask if that'd help. It'll be hard traveling if you have trouble reading maps."

~I'll do that,~ she said with another dazzling smile. ~But I'm sure I'll get better with practice, too.~


	2. Chapter 2

~No - I - stop, stop! Forfeit! We forfeit! Please!~

"Alright Sudy, you heard her," Mariano said.

The sudowoodo gave the pokemon a last contemptuous kick.

#

~We forfeit!~ the girl shouted as his machoke went in for the next blow. She was already moving onto the field.

"What are you doing, you idiot!" Elijah shouted, as his machoke redirected the punch at the last moment. "You never get in the middle of a pokemon battle!"

She wasn't even listening. She was standing next to the mawile. Small tears had welled up in its eyes. Good god, was he seriously seeing - "Hey, fake tears isn't supposed to work on the trainer, you know! How stupid are you?"

She looked to him and burst into tears. ~How can you say that?~

"I'm sorry!" he said immediately. "Forget it, we'll stop."

#

~Stop! Stop! I forfeit!~

Zack's bunary hesitated, glancing back at him. Not sure what to make of this, he shrugged back. "You know, you're not doing so - " But she'd already run into the middle of things like an idiot with a death wish, so there wasn't much point in saying they could've continued.

#

~I forfeit!~

Her flareon's jaws shut, cutting off the flames, and the pokemon took an uncertain step back. Sara's opponent ran onto the field, hovering anxiously over her seedot. After a second, the seedot burst into tears. ~ I'm sorry! I'm sorry! ~ She flipped her bag over her head - did she not even know how backpacks worked? - and started to rifle through the pockets.

"You know that's fake, right?" Sara cut in.

The girl looked between her and the seedot. Evidently not. "The tears. It's not really hurt."

The girl gestured at the seedot. ~He's _burned_.~

The seedot's exterior had changed from beige to marginally deeper beige. "That's ridiculous. You'd see a glow and smoke if it was smoldering. Believe me, I know what burns look like."

~That's being on fire!~ The girl's face was staying calm, but she sounded like she was seconds away from similar waterworks.

"Look, just - calm down. If you're worried, put it back in its pokeball. You can bring it to a pokecenter." _And the people there_ _can listen to you go on about how serious your pet's boo-boos are._

#

~Stop!~

There was an audible crunch as the clefairy was squeezed tighter.

~Stop! Forfeit, we're forfeiting, stop it!~

"What the hell," Huan said, watching the seviper uncoil and Dazzle crawl free. "What do you mean, forfeit? You think I'm that much of a weakling? Keep going!"

~I don't want,~ the girl said. ~We're just. Just this isn't right. I. We. We're stopping.~

"We are not! Dazzle, psychic! We're winning this!"

"Cle!" Dazzle shoved herself back to her feet and held out her hands. Swirling energy shot out, only to slam into a wall of light. Whoa. He hadn't realized seviper could do that.

That same seviper jumped through the wall, sinking its fangs into his clefairy's side. Then it smashed the smaller pokemon into the ground repeatedly, until it turned into red light.

The pokeball in the girl's hands shut. She turned and ran, disappearing behind a rock.

"Hey!" He chased after her, but as soon as he rounded the corner, there was no sign of her. "It's a good thing you're a fast runner!" he shouted at the emptiness. "Because you're never going to be able to fight off any wild pokemon around here! Go run back to the city and tell Mommy and Daddy fights are too scary!"

#

~I forfeit.~

#

~I forfeit.~

#

~I forfeit.~

#

"I can do it," Mouthless Mirror said, trying to sound confident. "I said I'd help you. It's scary, but it's not like I'm going to die. I trust you. Trust me. Let me see how far I can get the next time."


End file.
